Environmental groups have called on the government to round up Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle with a mass seizure of livestock that some fear could lead to a tense standoff between armed militia groups and federal authorities.

A coalition of wildlife organizations wrote to the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday urging the agency to remove Bundy’s cattle in the Gold Butte area of Nevada, where the 70-year-old has for years allowed his cows to graze freely on public lands in defiance of federal land-use restrictions.

The advocates’ demands come three months after federal officials arrested Bundy, eventually charging him and 18 other activists for their roles in a high-profile conflict at the family’s ranch in Bunkerville, about 80 miles north-east of Las Vegas.

For decades, Bundy refused to pay grazing fees to the federal government, arguing that the BLM had no right regulating land activity in the west. An ensuing court battle dragged on for years until the authorities showed up to his ranch in April 2014 with the intention of seizing his cows, which the government classified as an illegal trespass on public lands.

But hundreds of supporters, some heavily armed, showed up to defend Bundy’s cattle, forcing the government to stand down for fear of violence – a retreat that galvanized anti-government groups across the west.

After Cliven’s sons Ammon and Ryan staged a similar standoff on federal lands in Oregon in January, federal prosecutors aggressively targeted the Bundy family and their followers.

Now, Cliven and four of his sons who participated in the 2014 standoff are in jail awaiting trial on serious federal felony charges that could force them to spend decades behind bars.

Although the Bundy men are locked up, the cattle are still grazing without restrictions in an area that the government and environmentalists say is critical habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise, a threatened species.

“The BLM must not wait to act to protect the desert tortoise,” nine environmental and wildlife groups wrote in their letter, which cited a recent study showing how livestock grazing causes severe declines in tortoise populations. “The cattle should be rounded up and removed from these public lands no later than summer 2016.”

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